The present invention is directed to an expansion dowel made up of a cylindrically shaped expansion sleeve having a leading end and a trailing end with means for securing a load to the sleeve. The sleeve has an opening extending in the leading end-trailing end direction and the opposite surfaces of the opening converge toward the leading end. A wedge-shaped expansion element shaped to correspond to the opening is supported laterally on the opposite edge surfaces of the opening.
Expansion dowels of the above-described type are used chiefly in the medium and lower load range and preferably are produced from sheet metal by punching or stamping and rolling procedures. Such dowels meet the requirements for resistance to fire and, therefore, are used to an increasing degree instead of the previously conventional plastics material dowels. Because of their great use, such dowels must be produced at low cost. Another feature of such dowels relative to plastics material dowels is that they have a post-expansion characteristic.
One known metal expansion dowel of this general type includes an expansion sleeve with an opening having opposite edge surfaces narrowing toward the leading end of the sleeve and a correspondingly wedge-shaped expansion element. The expansion sleeve and the expansion element are produced separately and must be assembled and connected to one another by a separate means until the dowel unit is placed in a borehole. The production of such an expansion dowel results in high manufacturing costs and makes the dowel much more expensive than a comparable plastics material dowel.